Dear Health and Disability Commissioner,

With regard to complaints about treatment in public hospitals only, I am seeking your assistance in helping to establish whether or not there has been an increase in patient complaints regarding bullying, discrimination, and negligence since the time that public hospitals started limiting the number of chaperones, family members, and other support persons patients are allowed to have with them during provider-patient interactions.

I think it appropriate to set the start date for the information I require as the beginning of the first Covid-19 lockdown, continuing through until the filing of this OIA request. This is reasonable because the vast majority of hospitals have maintained the same or similar degree of visitor restrictions until the time of writing this OIA request.

Rationale:
Since becoming the victim of medical negligence and the target of bullying by certain doctors from Christchurch public hospital since making my dissatisfaction known, I have started networking with other New Zealanders who have experienced the same or similar ill-treatment. A trend we're noticing is that bullying and negligence seems to be experienced by patients more frequently when they are alone and vulnerable - with no or limited support people around them. This is in contrast to experiencing a higher level of professionalism and respect when flanked by support persons such as family and friends in the hospital setting.

I am trying to ascertain whether or not unprofessional conduct and negligence on the part of nurses, doctors, and reception staff is more common when patients are isolated from their support networks (read witnesses).

Yours faithfully,
Aaron Goodwin